william goldman

Born on August 12, 1931 in Highland Park (Illinois), into a Jewish family. He and his brother, James Goldman, did not have an easy youth. His father, Maurice Goldman, was a successful businessman until drink wiped out his job. He ended up committing suicide when William was still in high school. In addition, family problems were intensified by the deafness of his mother, Marion.

Despite these obstacles, he was able to graduate with a degree in Fine Arts, after which he decided to join the army, where he remained until 1954. Two years later he received an MFA from Columbia University. During this time, Goldman did not stop writing short stories that he tried to get published, even though his college professors and magazines saw no talent in his work. Together with his brother, he moved to New York, where they shared a flat with the composer John Kander, who would become the creator of soundtracks for more than a dozen musicals, including Cabaret and Chicago .

In 1957 he published his first novel, “The Temple of Gold”, and in a matter of three years, two more. The third was made into a movie, Brothers in Arms and Punches (1960), a comedy directed by Ralph Nelson and released three years after its publication, in which he recounted his experiences in the army. Four years later, another of his works is adapted to the cinema, this time black humor and thriller, That’s Not How You Treat a Lady , directed by Jack Smight and released in 1968. William Goldman did not participate in any of the projects . In 1961 he married the model Ilene Jones, with whom he has two daughters, Jenny Rebecca and Susanna.

The rights to his best-seller, Boys and Girls Together (1964), were bought by producer Elliot Kastner. While negotiating with him, Goldman proposed to the producer the adaptation of the detective Lew Archer books, written by Ross Macdonald . Kastner trusted Goldman and thus began the adaptation of the former. The end result is Harper, a private investigator (1966), where Jack Smith repeated, with Paul Newman in the character’s skin, and whose success gave Goldman the fame he needed to move in Hollywood.

While teaching at Princeton and trying to return to his novels, the inspiration for his first original screenplay, Two Men and One Fate (1969), for which he was paid $400,000, came. This was the most expensive script at the time, and she spent eight years researching it before writing the final version of it. The film, directed by George Roy Hill , had a cast again headed by Newman, this time alongside Robert Redford , was a success with audiences and critics alike, and earned William Goldman his first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

William Goldman goes through a long period of illness, which led to a high creative period in which he wrote several novels and screenplays from the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Among them is “The Princess Bride”, which would take more than a decade in taking to the cinema, although Goldman already had written the adaptation. He also wrote two adaptations of his novels, Marathon Man (1976) and Magic (1976), his most lucrative screenplays to date. From this creative explosion emerge scripts such as A Red Hot Diamond (1972), The Carnival of Eagles (1975), The Stepford Wives (1975) and A Bridge Far Away .(1977). However, one of the scripts stood out above the rest, All the President’s Men (1976), with Redford again, opposite Dustin Hoffman , directed by Alan J. Pakula , led William Goldman to his second Oscar for best screenplay. adapted and a Golden Globe.

Despite the recognition of the film there were several controversies around it. Goldman was not happy with the end result, possibly because he was pressured to include a romantic plot. In addition, he assured that he had never before had to do so many versions of a script. On the other hand, in his official biography, Robert Redford claimed that William Goldman was not the author of the script. A series of investigations in a magazine eventually proved that Goldman was the original author of the script.

After this period of great activity came a dry spell for Goldman. Despite writing numerous scripts over many years, they were not made into movies. This left Goldman room to dedicate himself to his other facets as a writer, publishing in 1983 his famous book “The Adventures of a Screenwriter in Hollywood”, which would become an essential manual for generations of screenwriters.

Fortunately, Hollywood’s gaze returned to Goldman a few years later. After a couple of projects, comes The Princess Bride (1987), a story of knights, pirates, romance and adventure based on his own novel (he used to write the book first and then the scripted version). Although it was not very successful at the box office, the years have turned it into a cult film. The film’s director, Rob Reiner , asked Goldman for an adaptation of a Stephen King novel , and thus in 1990 Misery was released . In his personal life, Goldman suffers a setback, in 1991, as he divorces his wife.

After this he continued his career doing various uncredited jobs, rewriting and proofreading others’ scripts. Not for this reason he stopped writing his own stories and adaptations, although none of special relevance, most received very negative reviews. In 1998, another shock in Goldman’s life, his brother, James Goldman, died.

Some of his latest screenplays have been adaptations of Stephen King novels, Hearts in Atlantis in 2001 and The Dreamcatcher in 2003. Despite the success of Misery , none of these new adaptations achieved what was expected. His last book, from 2015, was based on one of his novels, Wild Card , and was a show vehicle for Jason Statham . He is currently considered a screenwriting guru around the world, three of his screenplays being on the Writers Guild of America’s list of the 101 Greatest Movies.